BESSEMER, Alabama -- The members of the board of the
Bessemer Airport Authority are grateful to Regions Bank and Bessemer city
officials for working out a recent funding agreement that will significantly
reduce the amount of the airport's annual loan payments to Regions, according
to the board's attorney, George Douglas.

And the City of Bessemer -- for the first time since 2008
-- will no longer have its $800,000 certificate of deposit held by the bank as
security for the airport's loan, according to Bessemer City Attorney Shan
Paden.

The agreement was approved by the Bessemer City Council
on July 16 and provides $60,000 in annual funding for the Authority to be used for loan payments.

"This funding will come in part from ad valorem property
taxes on aircraft based at the airport, and partly from the city's general fund,"
Douglas said in an email to AL.com July 24.

This will cover about 80 percent of the annual payments
on the Authority's remaining debt for a large aircraft hangar and terminal
building that were built in the mid-1990s, Douglas said.

The Authority's
annual payments to Regions have been about $72,000, Bessemer City Attorney Shan
Paden told council members prior to the July 16 approval of the agreement.

The
Authority will be responsible for the remaining $12,000 of the loan payments
after the new funding, according to Paden.

"The
Authority will pay the balance of the loan payments out of its revenues from
fuel sales and hangar rentals at the airport," Douglas said.

The
members of the Authority board declined comment on the matter, but according to
Douglas, they "expressed gratitude" to the city council for the new funding,
which they said "will free up other revenues for regular required maintenance
at the airport."

Members
of the authority are also grateful to Regions Bank, which agreed to finance the
loans in 2008 after Wachovia Bank, formerly SouthTrust, refused to continue to carry
the loan, according to Douglas.

"Regions
stepped up to help us finance this debt when other banks wouldn't, and they
have been an important financial partner with us in keeping the Bessemer
Municipal Airport financially healthy," he said.

The
airport currently has two outstanding notes with Regions -- one for about
$619,000 and a line of credit for $100,000, according to Paden, who said these
obligations are to be combined into one note for about $720,000.

He said
that Regions would release the city's certificate of deposit, which was offered
as collateral for the loan.

The loan
agreement, which lasts for two years, also states that the members of the Authority
board are to receive no salary or income, according to Paden.

The terms
of the original loan with Regions was negotiated in September 2008 during the
administration of former Bessemer Mayor Ed May.

The
Bessemer Municipal Airport is owned by the City of Bessemer. The Authority, a separate local government body, operates the
airport under a long-term lease from the city.

Regions Bank declined to comment on the agreement. "It is
our policy not to discuss customer relationships," a bank spokesperson said
today in an email to AL.com.